Month: May 2017

The sixth-gen Camaro went on sale in 2015, with a steady progression of ever-more-powerful variations following in the intervening years. As wild and modern as the styling may be, everything becomes old hat after a while. It looks like Chevrolet agrees, with a whole slew of camo-covered Camaros slinking about outside of GM’s Milford Proving Grounds. It looks like Chevy brought out the entire box of crayons for the party.

Looking for a Camaro today? Visit Ron Westphal Chevy in Aurora, IL or visit us online.

2019 Chevy Camaros spied rear tire

A brief look shows us nearly every flavor of Camaro, from a base four-cylinder model all the way up to the 650 horsepower ZL1. The latter is the only one without any front covers, but it’s also the newest kid on the block. Details are few, though it looks like both front and rear fascias are being updated while the center section of the car looks to be unchanged. That’s par for the course with mid-cycle refreshes.

2019 Chevy Camaros spied at proving grounds

Look for updated lighting both front and rear to complement the revised styling. That said, don’t expect it to stray too far from the current car’s divisive looks. The past two Camaros have had very distinct styling, and Chevy is eager to keep it that way.

Changes are likely more than skin deep, with updated engines and transmissions making their way into the car. Engines should gain a slight bump in both power and fuel efficiency. Don’t rule out a Camaro with a DOHC V8 under the hood, possibly badged as Z/28. Look for the new 10-speed automatic to make its way into more models.

Big Green is riding on a basic four-inch lift with blocks. It’s rough riding, but offers lots of ground clearance and great approach and departure angles. The classic 4×4 Chevy is rolling on 35-inch Mickey Thompson tires. It has a manually locking front hubs and lever-operated transfer case.

The Colorado ZR2 is packed full of latest technology. It’s wider and taller than a regular Colorado. It’s riding on 31-inch Goodyear Duratrac tires, and uses special position-sensitive spool valve shock absorbers. It also has electrically locking front and rear differentials.

Looking for a new or pre-owned Chevy Colorado? Visit our website or drop by our dealership in Aurora, IL.

I’ve had my 2017 Chevy Bolt for over a month now and have been pleasantly surprised about how much it has to offer. Like I really, really love this car even months after our review. While I still prefer my twice as expensive 2013 Tesla Model S overall, there are a number of areas where the Bolt beats the Tesla – and I mean the 2013 Model S but also in many cases Tesla’s new/upcoming models as well. Some of these things Tesla could choose to fix, but most are inherent design decisions.

Also I should note before y’all head to the comments that we love all EVs here at Electrek and before a Tesla vs. Bolt fight breaks out remember that we’re all on the same “Team EV” here.

Regenerative braking – The Bolt’s L mode is already stronger on regen that the Model S and with the left hand paddle that adds more regen, I can come to a complete stop in all but emergency braking situations without ever touching the actual brake. The Model S has fantastic regenerative braking but I need to use the brake way more often. I could see going weeks or months without ever touching the Bolt’s brake. I don’t think either car will ever need any brake work but the Bolt’s will certainly last longer and produce less brake dust.

4G LTE Hotspot in the car. Why? Because both my Tesla Model S and Chevy Bolt get way better signal than either of our phones and even a MiFi hotspot. The reason is because with a car, you can put seriously powerful antennas on the hotspot and get a signal even when phones and their compact circuitry are out of range. Could Tesla do this? Sure but billing software is a concern says CEO Elon Musk. Chevy/AT&T give me 3GB of data to start with a $20/month option which I’ll be tempted to buy when my free data runs out.

CarPlay/Android Auto. I’ve got a great set of apps and music on my smartphone and Carplay and Android Auto both work great for me. As good as Tesla’s version of Google Maps is and its OK voice and music, it is never going to get to Android or iOS level. Add the messaging options and other apps and the advantage is clearly with the Bolt, even with its half the Tesla-sized screen.

Size: The Tesla Model S and Model X are huge cars. They weigh a lot with their huge batteries and they take up every inch of a parking spot or a garage. Sure that space is nice to have on a long trip but lugging all of that car around day to day becomes a chore. The Bolt on the other hand with its “Micro Crossover” design is big on the inside with a bunch of headroom and cargo space but small on the outside. The amount of space in our garage we save with the Bolt, even over our old Prius, is substantial. When I just need to make a quick dash to the store? Bolt…every time.

Ride Height. Since we are comparing the Model S and the Bolt, it should be noted that you sit about a foot higher in the Chevy. That means you can see more of the road and adds visibility and some confidence in driving. The BMW-like surround cameras don’t hurt here either.

Getting in/out. That ride height also translates into making the car easier to get in and out. At “crossover” height, it is easy to kind of lean over into the seat and do the same getting out. On the Model S, you are getting much lower and have to climb out. For my parents who have some mobility issues, getting in and out of the Bolt is way easier than the Model S. Obviously, Tesla’s taller Model X and 3 may not have this “problem”.

Winter FWD vs RWD. Since we are comparing base models, Tesla’s is rear wheel drive (RWD) and the Bolt is front wheels drive (FWD). For driving pleasure, I’d take RWD any day of the week but when it is snowy outside, FWD definitely feels a lot safer especially into slippery turns. Give the advantage to the Bolt in the winter, unless of course you want AWD, which in electric car world, is still a Tesla exclusive.

Perceived pretentiousness factor – reduced. My wife doesn’t like taking the Tesla to work because she doesn’t want to have a better car than her boss. Even though we got ours when Teslas were selling for $49,000, people think you are driving a $100,000 car (and frankly it is exotic enough to warrant that). But that’s not great when you want to blend in. The Bolt looks and acts like a (hot) hatchback which is standard fare in these parts.

Charging can be better…sometimes. In our garage like many, the power is toward the back and that means the Bolt’s front based charger is easier to get to. When doing public charging stations, I don’t need to back in nor do I need a Tesla->J1772 adapter. Oh, and there happen to be some Chademo/CSS combo stations at the ski resort we frequent near Bennington/Manchester Vermont. We had to buy the $450 Chademo adapter for the Tesla to use these (which are overpriced, flawed NRG EVGO stations that need to be restarted every 30 mins). Overall however, Tesla’s Supercharger network is the best in the business by many order of magnitudes. I really hope that in the near future, every EV can use every charging station.

More range per kWh. Both cars have 60kWh batteries but I can easily get 240 miles out of the Bolt. Even when the Model S was new, I didn’t get 210 miles because it is a much bigger car. Now, 4.5 years later, I get in the high 190s – which is a very small degradation for a car that has 50K miles and lots of DC charging under its belt. However, our trip to the Vermont mountains is about 180 miles which means the Bolt will make it without issue while the Tesla will likely need to charge along the way to be safe.

This weekend’s running of the Monster Energy All-Star Race is an anniversary for Chevrolet and many of the teams aligned with the automaker.

Want your own Nascar-inspired ride? Visit Ron Westphal Chevy in Aurora, IL or call our Customer Care Team at 630-898-9630 to set up your V.I.P. appointment. Of course you can always visit us online.

Ten years ago, Chevrolet scored its first victory with the R07 engine, a new piece designed to replace the outdated, although still formidable, SB2.

Kevin Harvick, driving the No. 29 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, won the event, known then as the Nextel All-Star Challenge, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Success in a points-paying event wasn’t far behind — the first points win for a team using the R07 came a week later when former Hendrick Motorsports driver Casey Mears captured the Coca-Cola 600 at CMS.

Chevrolet teams won 23 races the previous year, the first season of a five-year title run for Jimmie Johnson. In ’07, with teams transitioning to the R07, eight of the manufacturer’s 26 wins came with the new engine under the hood.

“We had two things occurring in the 2007 season; Chevrolet had new engine hardware approved in the R07 and the second was we were rolling out the Car of Tomorrow,” Doug Duchardt, general manger for HMS, told NASCAR.com. “So as the season began we started thinking about how we wanted to combine those two. We knew the R07 had more power potential so we focused on getting those engines into the previous car, the non-COT races, because those were more intermediate races.”

The COT debuted that year at Bristol and was run on all tracks under 1 mile, as well as Darlington (1.366 mile), road course races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen, and the fall stop at Talladega.

“We felt like that while there was an advantage obviously to have more power, that if you were at a Richmond or Bristol or Martinsville, that’s not as big as say Charlotte,” Duchardt said. “So at the beginning of the year we focused on getting that rolled out for the intermediate tracks.

“As we started running them and saw the potential in the engine, we thought it was going to take longer to roll out. But the thing I remember is … when we first started running them everyone knew what the potential gain was. We put the carrot out there to the engine shop of, ‘We’d like to have this rolled across all of our programs by the 600.’ We thought it was a stretch to get there. And when we put that vision out there, that goal, it was amazing how everyone focused on that and worked to achieve it.”

With Toyota teams arriving on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series level that season, other OEMs had been given new parameters on which to build their engines to keep a level playing field.

“It was really just a matter of seeing the writing on the wall, the limitations of the architecture of the SB2 and knowing that we were going to have to keep up with something that had more capability that really drove us in that direction,” said Pat Suhy, Chevrolet Racing NASCAR group manager.

“We didn’t just look at them and say, ‘Oh crap!’ We knew architecturally that the SB2 was challenged. And we had evolved designs of a small block before Toyota showed up. But them showing up with their part is what I think kind of forced NASCAR’s hand, if you will, to let the other OEMs do significant architectural changes to our stuff in order not to be left behind.”

“Because there’s always buyer’s remorse, right? You get this new engine and, ‘Man, it’s got to be at least as (good as) the old one. I hope it’s better.’ We had a few teething pains at the very beginning. Getting the first win under your belt, it’s like with anything, you breathe a sigh of relief and say, ‘Good, now we can get on.’ Not question if it’s as good; let’s make it better now.”

Likewise, getting the win in the 600 the following weekend, Duchardt said, was special.

“I always say the engine guys have it a little easier because we had a real simple and accurate way to measure the performance of the engine, and it’s on the dynamometer,” he said. “So we could understand the power, the torque, the fuel efficiency of the engine. So we knew by every measure that this was as good or better in every aspect. If you weren’t having success with it, it wasn’t because it was an inferior product to your previous one, it was because of other reasons.

“Once we saw that it was a better product than the SB2, then we had confidence in it moving forward. The fact that we won that race was just icing on the cake.

“I think it was Casey’s only win so that was really special, it was the National Guard car, Memorial Day … If you add all that in and the work to be ready for it, it was a special day all around.”

Not a day goes by that the C6 Corvette Z06 does not go from good looking to better looking to even more better looking. What a clear, simple visualization of a sports car ideal.

Looking for your own slice of the Chevy pie? Call our Customer Care Team at 630-898-9630, visit our dealership in Aurora, IL or visit us online.

I always admire the Z06, mostly because I am a five-foot-nine dude who looks absolutely and spectacularly ridiculous seated in a big Corvette. I can’t own one. I can drive them, if it’s at night. They’re not my size or my vibe, and are consequently off limits. I leave Corvette ownership to the bigger and brasher humans of this planet.

This does mean I spend a lot of time thinking about Corvettes and staring at them. All of this thinking and staring has led me to the above conclusion: the C6 Z06 is aging really, wonderfully, joyously well.

It’s hard to grasp in pictures just how low and wide they are in person. These Z06s are 3.3 inches wider (thanks to carbon fiber fenders) than the ordinary Corvette on which they’re based. The effect completely transforms the look of the car from retiring, Florida-hogging grandpa to lunging, road-sniffing attack dog.

There’s a little snout on the car, breathing in a little extra air for the 7.0 liter small block under the hood.

It’s a sad day in the world of sport sedans. We knew this day was coming, but that doesn’t make it less painful. Today the last Chevrolet SS sedan rolled off the line in Elizabeth, South Australia.

Looking for a fast ride? Visit Ron Westphal Chevrolet in Aurora, IL or call our customer care team at 630-898-9630.

And boy, is the last one a beauty. It’s black with the aging, but lovely LS3 6.2-liter V-8 that comes with every SS and a six-speed manual transmission. Upon the request of whoever ordered it (likely someone from GM) it was signed by the Holden crew who built it.

Ordering for the SS ended in February and there’s no plan for a next generation or a successor. Like most Holden captive imports that GM has brought to the States, it was never intended to be a high-volume seller. Outside of NASCAR, Chevy didn’t really advertise the SS.

We only got a grand total of 12,953 SS sedans in the US and 7,305 Caprice PPV police cars which, like the SS, is based on the Holden Commodore. That’s less than half as many of the 41,000 Pontiac G8s (based on the previous generation Commodore) we got in its 3-model-year run.

To add insult to injury, the Australian plant where the Commodore and SS were built is being shut down this October. That makes it very unlikely that we’ll ever get a Holden-based GM product in the US ever again.

It’s hard to pin the death of the SS on any one factor. You can’t really blame sales numbers because it was such a low-volume car and I believe GM when they say it was never intended to be a big seller. But if that’s the case, then why bother bringing it over here at all?

The all-new 2017 Chevrolet Cruze is a pretty damn good compact car. For buyers who prefer the added torque and fuel efficiency of a diesel—and still think that fuel has a future in America after Volkswagen lit it all on fire—Chevy has you covered for a starting price of less than $25,000.

Looking for a diesel? Call our Customer Care Team at 630-898-9630 or drop by our dealership If you prefer, you may visit us online anytime.

Should it really be the automaker’s fault if an owner willfully ignores seat belts?

Fun fact: Did you know that, in order to comply with US regulations, automakers have to design airbags to work with unbelted occupants? Now you do, thanks to a new Chevrolet recall.

Chevrolet has issued a recall for 55,068 examples of the 2016-2017 Spark compact car. The recall was put in place because these vehicles were found to be in violation of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208, “Occupant Crash Protection.”

If you have any questions about this recall you can reach our service department at 630-898-9630 or stop by our dealership on the corner of Route 30 and Route 34 in Aurora, IL near Plainfield, Oswego and Naperville. You can always visit us online!

The reason for the recall might sound odd. If a young child is seated improperly in the front passenger seat and is also not wearing a seat belt, a deployed airbag might increase the risk of injury to that child. That means the car fails to comply with FMVSS 208, so the automaker must recall the vehicle to fix the problem.

The trouble is, that problem isn’t technically with the airbag — it’s with the owner that placed a child in the front seat improperly. There are a number of rules about how children should be seated in a vehicle, and not wearing a seat belt is straight-up illegal. Yet, the car’s airbags must still be designed to avoid injury, even for improperly seated and belted occupants.

You can’t fix stupid, but the onus is still on GM to engineer a solution for this recall. While the recall has been announced, GM has not yet devised a solution to remedy the issue. Therefore, there’s no notification schedule for owners just yet, but when the fix is in, owners will be notified by first-class mail.

In the meantime, common sense would suggest putting children in the back seat and making sure they’re buckled up.

One of the biggest auto makers in the world, General Motors began its India journey in 1996 – much before the likes of Renault and Nissan, and around the same time as Hyundai. 21 years on, the American company has under one per cent share in the otherwise vibrant Indian car market. While the car did come as a fresh and premium package, it could not find mass appeal. Here’s taking a look at GM’s Chevrolet current offerings will now bid farewell to Indian shores. Bid adieu…

If you are interested in what is available in America, visit us online anytime or call our Customer Care Team at 630-898-9630.

INDIANAPOLIS — When Keith Richard Litavsky returned home from fighting on the front line in the Vietnam War, he did so with two Purple Hearts and one more mission to accomplish.

That mission took him to an Illinois car dealership where he purchased the car he had been dreaming about while serving overseas: a marina blue 1967 Chevrolet Corvette.

Looking to make your own Corvette history? Visit Ron Westphal Chevrolet in Aurora, IL or call us at 630-898-9630. If you prefer, our website is always open.

Paid for with money he’d sent home from the war for that very purpose, Keith Litavsky took meticulous care of the car.

He kept diaries of its use where he logged each time he started it and the RPMs he hit. He never drove it in the rain. He refused to park it in the sun. He even instructed his five children not to talk to anyone about the car out of fear it would be stolen.

After decades of caring for the vehicle, Keith Litavsky died in 1993 of cancer from exposure to Agent Orange on his last mission in Vietnam. That is when his son, Matt, inherited the car and vowed to carry on his father’s legacy of meticulous care and sharing each magical moment with the dream car with his growing family.

“One of my first memories as a kid happened to do with that car,” Matt Litavsky explained. “I have two brothers, and my dad would take the cover over the jack stand out behind the back seats, and we would take our shoes off and carefully sit in the back. Two of us would sit in the back area and one would sit in the driver’s seat, and he would give us rides. … All I can remember is him getting on it, and lot of screaming going on and my head bouncing off of the back window and just loving every second of it going, ‘whoooo!’

“Now it’s part of my family with my wife and three kids, and they cherished it and loved it as much as I did when I was a kid. So it’s kind of bittersweet for us, but I think it’s time.”

With its unparalleled record of care, the Litavsky family Corvette is a highlight of Mecum Indy 2017 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, and the closest thing to a “vault find” you’ll see at the auction this year as it spent most of its life away from public view.

The car, boasting the 427 cubic-inch V-8 with 435 horsepower an M21 close-ratio, four-speed, manual transmission, has just 8,533 miles. In its 50-year history, it has never been judged or shown publicly, and has only been driven 15 miles in the past 15 years.

It is scheduled to cross the Mecum auction block on Saturday. As far as what it will sell for, the value of the car has not been estimated by the folks at Mecum, so enthusiasts will have to wait until the weekend to find out.

Matt Litavsky said owning the car has been a blessing, but it has also been extremely difficult as it brings back memories of his father’s death. passing.

He remembers his dad as a 6-foot-2-inch, 220-pound man made of solid muscle. He remembers him as the man who was injured several times during the war, including once when he was hit by a grenade blast, which that left shrapnel in his body for the remainder of his life.

He remembers him as the man who carried his injured commanding officer out of a horrific firefight, a firefight that only Keith Litavsky would survive. That incident happened during the mission where Keith Litavsky was exposed to the chemical Agent Orange.

“As a result, his commanding officer told him he would nominate him for the Congressional Medal of Honor. Yet he never received the medal because his commander lost his life in a helicopter crash before being able to submit the nomination,” Matt Litavsky told Mecum Auctions. “That crash left my father as the only surviving soldier in his unit. He was released with two Purple Hearts, but it was an endless string of tragedies. We were so happy to have him come home, safe and sound … or so we thought.

Matt Litavsky said moving forward, parting ways with the car will never erase the wonderful memories he has of caring for it with his father. He remembers his father coming home from work at a lab with long cotton swabs and fabric-covered tongue depressors, and how they would use those items to clean every nook and cranny of the already spotless Corvette.

“It has been in our family my whole life … but if something happens to me, my children can split money easier than they can split a car,” he said. “I wanted to do it right, and I think that Mecum Auctions has done a great job. It’s been a real blessing and it’s been a great tribute to my father, my family and the car.”